Arthur made his way down the stairs and onto the shop floor; today wasn't going to be very fun, he could feel it. He had just got over his 'man flu' and his flat was still cold as a penguin's arse. With winter coming and all sorts of holidays fast approaching, the shop was going to turn into a mad house. He walked along the row of tills, writing down and signing next to what till he'd be on and made to walk over to it; a woman's voice called after him, the 'no nonsense' tone stopping him in his tracks.

"Arthur? Could you come over here for team briefing please?" His eyes widened as he spun round to obey, seeing the long, platinum blonde ponytail and signature black bow.

'Oh Lord… Not her…'

Natalia Braginski… His manager. Well, while Francis was a manager, Natalia was the manager. She was the one in charge of the actual shop; she spoke to all the higher-ups, signed all the pay checks… Sacked the employees…

Arthur hurried over to the corner of the room, where the briefing was being held; Natalia didn't like the chance that a customer may hear the statistics. The manager had been away for a while because of an injury or something similar (so Arthur had heard), it was pure bliss while she was gone and Arthur was beginning to actually enjoy his job. Though now she was back; the pressure would be piled on. He had never thought that a job in retail would involve any pressure whatsoever; Natalia proved him wrong.

She wanted everything perfect; statistics should always go up, products must always be pushed, people left the shop with more products or having signed up for a store card. Arthur had never been so stressed during his first 13 weeks of working in the shop; if something was wrong with how someone was doing anything, Natalia would make sure they knew about it. Natalia needed everything absolutely ship shape in her shop.

And she frightened the living daylights out of Arthur.

Now this was coming from a grown man who had had his share of frightening experiences in his life; this woman, was frightening.

"Yesterday we came in at a total of £17,473 which is good for this time of year; up 7% from last week and 5% from this date last year, which is good but I think we could all do better." Arthur never really understood the statistics, they were just a bunch of numbers in his mind; in his opinion, as long as they were going up he didn't care. "With those numbers, we ended up 4th overall and 2nd in the area…" That was good; maybe she'd get off their backs today. "Product of the week is the 'Microfiber cloths', £2, so everyone be sure to be pushing those please; we also have those 10% off vouchers that a lot of people will be using, so be sure you know what to do with those." Normally, one wouldn't think twice about what Natalia was saying; she was a manager, it was her job. However, it was the way in which she said these things that had Arthur constantly on edge; her tone always reminded him of that one teacher you could never please. The one that always sounded disappointed and tired of your crap no matter what you did.

"Also, everyone be sure to keep your F1 bypasses under control, you know we like to keep it under 9%." Natalia continued, looking to some of the new staff gathered around her. The 'F1 bypass' was basically when a customer didn't want, have, or couldn't be bothered to use their store card; this bypass was recorded in the till for all the managers to see how many potential customers a person had let slip through their grasp. It took the number of customers served and how many didn't use a store card, and worked it all into a percentage; and one certainly got a talking to if this bypass got too high. "Arthur, you're currently on 7%, which is good, just bring it down a little more, that would be wonderful, thank you." Arthur nodded curtly; 'If my bypass is down it's DOWN. Be happy with it…' Natalia dismissed the employees to their various stations and all was business as usual; the rush already seemed liked it had passed and the flow of customers were rather feeble. Maybe today would go ahead without incident after all.

But it was never that simple, was it?

~~

Alfred walked through the automatic doors into the shop, grabbed a basket - he had to make it look like he was doing something – and checked his phone for the time; it was a full hour and a half before when he'd first stepped into the shop so many weeks ago. In the past weeks, the American had been coming in earlier and earlier; wanting to see where exactly he stood in Arthur's schedule, seeing if he was near the end or beginning of his shift. Now I know what you're thinking; and yes. If someone said the plan out loud then yeah… it would sound a little 'stalker-ish', but Alfred was a man of science! This was purely for research! It wasn't like he was some obsessed 13 year old with rope in his basement, ready to kidnap and hogtie the poor man; Alfred didn't approve of that stuff. It was just that, in all honesty, someone like Arthur would probably never talk to someone like him if Alfred met him in the street; meeting and talking in this store was really their only chance. As if fate decided long ago that that's where they'd meet. And who was Alfred to deny fate? He grinned to himself.

Speaking of; there was the Englishman now. It looked like he was manning the changing rooms again, fantastic; that left a larger window to talk with him. As he walked over, Alfred noticed that Arthur looked a little tired; he hoped that the man had got over his illness in the past week, but maybe it was still affecting him? This cold weather really did suck.

"Hi Arthur!" Alfred said happily, smiling as the man turned around and he saw recognition flash across his face.

"Oh..." he replied quietly before giving a small, polite smile in return. "Good afternoon, sir." Alfred felt disappointment bubble in his chest for a moment. Arthur still refused to call him by his first name; it got to him sometimes but he just kept telling himself that it was because Arthur was too polite for his own good. Alfred kept his smile sunny as always.

"You can just call me Alfred y'know…" he said, tilting his head to one side. "All this 'sir' stuff makes me uncomfortable."

"Hm." Was all he got in reply, the man then turned back to tend to the clothing rail; Alfred knew that the Englishman would still refrain from calling him by his name. Of all the guys Alfred had to be interested in, he had to go for the one last stuffy, uppity British guy in existence.

"You feeling any better?" Alfred said after a pause. Arthur stopped what he was doing, looking blankly at the rail in front of him before answering quietly; his eyes still averted.

"…Yes, thank you." It was the smallest gesture of thanks possible really; to anyone else it would mean hardly anything, but it made Alfred's heart sore. His chest bubbled up with warmth and he smiled.

"It's cool…" There was another silence; Alfred began to feel increasingly awkward. In truth, there was an actual reason for him coming into the shop that day; it had been something he'd been preparing himself for for a while now, psyching himself up whenever he had the chance. He'd been giving himself the largest pep talk in the world while he was driving over; he'd decided that today was going to be the day.

Today was the day he would ask Arthur out.

"So…" Alfred began, trying to mentally psych himself up even as he neared the point of no return. He could feel his heart speed up, the anticipation was killing him; all the thoughts of what could go wrong flooding his mind. 'You barely know him, he barely knows you, he's a grumpy dude, you're a bit of a creeper, let's face it, you don't even know if he actually goes for guys…' Alfred tried to shake these thoughts from his mind; he didn't really care at that moment. If it happened it happened, if it didn't, it didn't; Alfred was just gonna ask him out for coffee, nothing overly suggestive there. Nothing sexual or whatever; he just wanted to get to know him better, even if it was just as friends or hell, even acquaintances. At least to begin with.. Arthur was unaware of Alfred's inner turmoil, he was putting clothes back onto hangers and putting them on the rail in front of him; Alfred decided to just suck it up. He took a deep breath, and then took the plunge.

"Wanna grab a coffee sometime?" Arthur missed the rail completely and the shirt (coat hanger and all) clattered to the floor; the Englishman stared at it blankly for a moment before crouching and picking it up. Alfred braced himself, his heart beating insanely fast but he thanked God it was cold outside so he could blame his blush on the weather. A request for coffee wasn't bad right? Someone could ask anyone that and not mean anything by it right? Arthur could say yes to that… He could allow himself that, right? However, Arthur being the uppity, stuffy Brit that he was…

"I'm sorry sir, but that's inappropriate banter for the workplace." Arthur still wasn't looking at him, focusing on his work. Alfred's heart sank; there was a painful sting in his chest but he worked through it. 'Inappropriate banter for the workplace'? Well, Alfred had dealt with that card before.

"I don't work here." He replied smoothly.

"That is inappropriate banter for me to take part in while I'm working." Arthur hadn't even missed a beat; this guy was good, but he wouldn't give up that easily! Alfred pouted, pondering for a moment; he smiled, lips curving almost deviously.

"So it'd be fine if you weren't working?" That one got him. Arthur faltered for a moment; his eyes darting down for a few seconds before looking back at Alfred as he answered calmly.

"… My apologies, sir but that is inappropriate banter for the workplace," The American felt his shoulders drop; this didn't seem to be going anywhere. "If you want to continue this conversation, you will have to do so at a time when I am not working." Now that perked him right up; he leaned forward a little and put his hands in his pockets nonchalantly.

"So when do you get off work?"

"I'm sorry sir, but that is - -"

"Inappropriate banter for the workplace; I get it. I can't win can I?" Though there was laughter in his voice, Alfred could tell that he seemed downright dejected. Arthur looked at him sidelong from the rail in front of him

"My apologies, sir." He said quietly, picking up a few items of clothing and draping them over his arm; Alfred sighed inwardly as the man kept on being so formal with him, even as he was rejecting him so flat out. He would've been depressed for longer, but then the shorter man turned to him and Alfred saw something he had never expected to see on the Englishman's face.

He smirked.

"If you really want to talk to me, it seems you'll just have to run into me on the street." And with that comment, Arthur left the changing rooms (slightly hurried) with his bundle of clothes, to put them back where they belonged. His tone and expression were much more playful than Alfred had seen him talk to customers; and especially more everything than he would talk to Alfred. He stood in shock for a while, watching Arthur's back as he left to do his job; a strong smile worked its way onto his face. Sure, it wasn't a 'yes'… But it wasn't a 'no' either.

Alfred's smile grew as he thought about what Arthur said, and the fact that it may have been slightly inappropriate banter for the workplace.

Oooooohhhh~ The plot thickens!... Sort of.. not really XD Alfred's still a fail and Arthur's still an uppity gitface.
But hey! At least I updated! *slapped* I'm sorry it took so long but I had to change laptops recently so Ive spent the last few days transferring all my files :'3 I just realised... these chapters are actually pretty short :'3 I open this thing in a smaller window so it's easier for me to read and edit (don't ask me why XD) so it looks longer... but actually... it's pretty short X'D sorry. In future I'll try to make the chapters longer :'3

I have Natalia as the big scary manager cause she's a scary woman. XD I think she suits the situation XD she won't have a very large part in the story but just so you know she's there XD

Alfred finally asked him out! Too bad they're both a couple of dorky fails. :'I But what's this? An expression from Arthur that ISN'T a scowl!? GASP! *slapped*

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you to all of you who leave reviews cause they are my life blood and you have no idea how much I love you all for that (though I can't reply to the guest's reviews! I'm sorry! but I love you anyway!). Thank you all and I hope you enjoy this chapter as well as chapters to come! :3